movies

Movies watched lately (repeats mostly):

Fried Green Tomatoes (I always cry)
GI Jane (it was weird - all on at the same time, Demi and Tom: GI Jane, Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men)
Untouchables
Galaxyquest

Okay, anybody who knows me well knows that I love food. No really. Not just *any* food, *good* food. Sumptuous, delectable, tasty food. Even if it's healthy! When I decide to finally leave my safe haven and actually *gasp* take a trip somewhere, where and what I eat is a major component of any travel arrangements. I love to go to amazing restaurants in different places. To me that is sightseeing at its best (or is that tasteseeing or sighttasting?). Any type of food (except liver, tripe or other organ meats no thank you). So imagine my dismay when I found out this little restaurant exists in Toronto and I was just there in October (and I may never be back as that's as much as I liked Toronto):

http://knitty.com/blog/2007/02/who-needs-magnolia.html

ah but read further and it *just* opened, so I am saved :)

Anyhoo, it inspired me to try my hand at my own Valentine cupcakes. Especially since I baked NOTHING for Christmas. What??? you say - no really, NOTHING. I was not inspired, not interested in doing anything for Christmas.....(I really think I should just fall off the face of the earth during the entire month of December) On the other hand, we could have a couple of rounds of Hallowe'en and I'd be happy happy happy....

So I tried some lemon cupcakes and did the kiddie thing by adding those rainbow non pareil candy to the batter - what a freakin' mess. Took that lovely yellow batter and made a massacre out of it...no harm, still tastes wonderful... albeit there are crunchy candy bits on the bottom that I will have to explain to anyone who decides to try one (heh heh if they last that long). The lemon frosting was a bit more difficult (it's been awhile since I made icing). I thought it was stiff enough, but alas, collapsed under pressure, so no lovely designs. But I had fun buying Necco wafer-type hearts and Jelly Bellies for decoration. Yum. Maybe enough left over to take for work? Hmf. No promises, no way. ;-) I LOVE lemons.....after chocolate:

The choco ones of course are fab-oh. I made a good effort with the icing - heated butter, choc chips, and whipping cream together to melt the chips, whipped up and up and added icing sugar until REALLY dry. Lo and behold. It held its shape. Go figure. Give me a gold star... duh. heh heh. The spikey ones are my favorite, but I did them last in case I didn't have enough icing. They were delicious. Gone. Hubby brought home a maple latte just at the right time for us to each have a spikey. The others have decorations of mini-chips, valentine hearts, mini Hershey's kisses (oh these are trouble - a whole bag of mini hersheys kisses buh) and the buttery type of jelly bellies that I could pick out of the assorted group I bought (you know, things that go good with chocolate: peanut butter, caramel, butter).

So much for the cleansing diet I did last month....time for another!!!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! XOXOX

Coleen

felted cat bed....in progress

Okay, so I have HOW many knitting projects going???? don't ask...

but I have made a felted purse before and really really really want to make a couple of felted kitty beds....and this yarn was just dying to come home with me.....pretty garish I know, but will be cute once felted and with a wee grey kitty napping in it.

mmmm danish butter cookies....

gosh I love these things.....they seem to be *everywhere* at this time of the year (I hesitate to say Christmas as it isn't even the end of November yet!!)




yummy yummy with a nice cup of Tim Hortons coffee.....

oh yeah, made this pendant on Thursday. Not great photo as you cannot see the rainbow iridescence of the moonstone cabochon, but kinda funky nonetheless....

Barriers to Success

Barriers to Success

Why do I have to make things so hard for myself?
I seem to do everything to sabotage success.
There is just so much I want to do, but my ability to organize is weak.

I have all these ideas in my head for jewelry.
Yet when I have time off work, I hesitate to do even a fraction of the fun stuff to get my plans off the ground.
It seems like there are so many other things that need to get done.
I tried Flylady. Worked for awhile but I fell off the wagon.

So much to read: job-related, jewelry-related, fiction, self-help including financial….oiy oiy oiy!!

I can see why people hire personal organizers now. Everything seems important! Too important to throw away! I have to learn to let go in order to clean out the clutter and give my mind space to grow and produce.

Anyone have any tips?

silver fun

Wow. Have I been having fun at silversmithing class. I finally *get* sweat-soldering! yay. i made 2 pairs of earrings today, one for me, one for my MIL whose birthday is in a week. They are in the tumbler right now getting nice and shiny so hopefully i will be able to take a pic tomorrow. Also in the tumbler - my cat pendant and my hammered and soldered chunky bracelet. eeeee!!
Also got some nice lampwork this week - 2 wonderful beads from Richard Ronsick of goofballs beads, and one of my favorite lampwork artists MEESH!!! (aka Michelle Goldstein) Her beads are warm and funky and fun to play with. Jeez I wish I'd taken some pics.....alas...too dark now and I don't have a spiffy set up to take 'em when there's no sunlight...if MIL doesn't like the earrings, I will keep. made with aquamarines (her birthstone) but very calming and grounding stone. I love 'em. love em love em....no she doesn't know i have this blog so it's not spoiling anything!

Watched "40 year old virgin" on the weekend. I actually found it quite funny despite the overwhelming bathroom humour (this coming from someone raised on Monty Python). But even better was Wallace and Gromit (Grommit?) the Wererabbit! Excellent. I highly recommend :)

work in progress

so finally - i have some stuff to post, but be kind, i'm still learning, both soldering, polishing AND taking digital photos.
these projects are not completed, but "in progress"
3 rings, one for hubby, which he is already wearing so i can tweak it as we go, with lots of firescale unfortunately, two for me, simple, but i plan to texture the crap out of one ;)
2 bracelet bands - the heart stamp didn't stay still on one, but i'll just call that creative license LOL
and my big chunky, all soldered chain! i love it! not polished very much at all yet. have made some dings and flat spots while i was emerying off the solder points. oh well....i'm having fun!!!


ackkkk. i am having horrible cravings. just started another "recleanse" week. excellent test of my inner fortitude, but the first few days are awful for cravings. this is what i made for lunch today - it is very very tasty, but doesn't quite cut it when i really want a bag of sunchips and a snickers bar.

1 cup of quinoa cooked with 2 cups of chicken broth
1 can of great northern beans
3 stalks of chopped celery
1 red, 1 orange pepper, chopped
good handful of fresh italian parsley, chopped
radishes...lots, chopped of course
juice of one lemon
olive oil - about 2-3 tablespoons? heck if i know, i eyeball it.
green onions if i'd remembered to buy some :(
tumeric - i think i used about 1/2 teaspoon
basil - some
oregano - some
cayenne pepper - as much as you think you'd like. i use a lot.

heh heh i really just fly by the seat of my pants and add what looks good.
did you notice - no salt! well duh. that's the point of the cleanse diet.
mix it all together, let it sit until you can't stand it anymore and dig in...well, not really; have a moderate portion as this is also the point of the diet. eat less than you normally would. this salad is great to take to work for lunch. except for the onion part. unless you hate your coworkers. then double the onions, add in white and red onions and fresh garlic. the beans will create the effect that speaks for itself. literally.

when i'm not on the cleanse diet, i'll make this with a can of tuna instead and mix up what veggies i add. use your imagination, that's what it's there for.

I am totally hooked on this:

http://www.websudoku.com

Darn it all anyway....I don't have time for that!!!LOL I never heard of that game until I went and visited my dad at Christmas, never played it until I got back home. So now I have bought newspapers to play it, bought a book of it, downloaded it to my cell phone, and now I play it online!!! AAAHHHHHHHH!

I was lucky enough to find out about another silversmithing class that goes on during the DAY! (what a concept) I hate night courses as I'm a morning person and visibly shut down at about 8pm..... So I signed up for this class at the last minute, have only had one class, but I can already tell this instructor is awesome! She is totally into the minutia detail that I love! AND she's patient especially with my copious questions....but it *has* only been one class LOL.... Can you tell I'm stoked?????